I have a simple exercise that has been developed (not by me) to interrupt the limbic brain (fight or flight, survival) responses to situations. So if you find yourself reacting unwisely or melodramatically to a situation, try this:
1) Put your arms straight out in front of you.
2) Cross your arms and turn your palms outward, so that your thumbs point toward the floor.
3) Clasp your hands together interlacing the fingers.
4) Pull your hands down and in toward your belly, then fold them up along your midline to under your chin (doesn't have to touch your chin, just relax in this position).
5) Stand on one leg for twenty seconds.
5) Stand on the other leg for twenty seconds.
In case anyone is thinking that this is some new age la-la stuff, it isn't. I learned this in a conference which included scientists, and some of the smartest people on the planet.
While I was going to this (week-long) conference, I woke up in the middle of the night because I was having trouble breathing. When I opened my eyes, I could barely see. My boyfriend had been cooking something on the stove and gone out to his office (we both work at home and often work late in the night), which is attached to the garage and separated by the patio from the house.
He forgot about the stuff cooking on the stove, and it had been cooking so long it had liquified and had filled the house with smoke (our alarms were disabled). After alerting him, I went into my walk-in closet, shut the door and did that exercise. It worked. I stayed calm and unreactive. Normally I would have hit the roof with melodrama from being woken up that way, as I had to get up super-early to make it to the conference. My business partner had an incident that very same night for which she used the exercise successfully (a conflict with her daughter).
1) Put your arms straight out in front of you.
2) Cross your arms and turn your palms outward, so that your thumbs point toward the floor.
3) Clasp your hands together interlacing the fingers.
4) Pull your hands down and in toward your belly, then fold them up along your midline to under your chin (doesn't have to touch your chin, just relax in this position).
5) Stand on one leg for twenty seconds.
5) Stand on the other leg for twenty seconds.
In case anyone is thinking that this is some new age la-la stuff, it isn't. I learned this in a conference which included scientists, and some of the smartest people on the planet.
While I was going to this (week-long) conference, I woke up in the middle of the night because I was having trouble breathing. When I opened my eyes, I could barely see. My boyfriend had been cooking something on the stove and gone out to his office (we both work at home and often work late in the night), which is attached to the garage and separated by the patio from the house.
He forgot about the stuff cooking on the stove, and it had been cooking so long it had liquified and had filled the house with smoke (our alarms were disabled). After alerting him, I went into my walk-in closet, shut the door and did that exercise. It worked. I stayed calm and unreactive. Normally I would have hit the roof with melodrama from being woken up that way, as I had to get up super-early to make it to the conference. My business partner had an incident that very same night for which she used the exercise successfully (a conflict with her daughter).
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...Wait, it would probably be a lot more use to me in the faculty lounge...the kids are great; it's usually the adults causing the real problems...